Over the years, casinos have grown in size, grandeur, and amenities in order to attract gambling patrons. Additionally, casinos have attempted to provide gambling patrons with a wide variety of the new and exciting games. Given this demand, gaming machines have grown in sophistication and features in order to captivate and maintain player interest. As a result, casinos are able to provide a wide range and large number of games of chance.
For example, a casino floor may include thousands of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) that are in communication with and monitored by the casino's gaming network. EGMs provide an enhanced gaming experience with computer graphics, stereo sound, animation, and other features that have been developed to maintain player interest in the game. Furthermore, EGMs may include secondary networked devices such as player tracking devices or enhanced player interfaces (e.g., Bally Gaming's iView™ touch-screen display). Accordingly, there are a large number of EGMs and related components that need to be monitored, maintained, and serviced.
In early gaming environments, gaming machines were stand-alone devices. Security of the gaming machines was accomplished via physical locks, security protocols, security personnel, physical and video monitoring, and the need to be physically present at a machine to attempt to breach the security of the gaming machine. By the same token, management of the gaming machines required a great deal of personal physical interaction with each gaming machine. The ability to change parameters of the gaming machine also required physical interaction.
In view of the increased processing power and availability of computing devices, gaming machines have become customizable via electronic communications and remote control. Manufacturers of gaming equipment have taken advantage of the increased functionality of gaming machines by adding additional features to gaming machines, thereby maintaining a player's attention at the gaming machines for longer periods of time, and increasing minimum bet and bet frequency and speed of play. This, in turn, leads to the player wagering at the gaming machine for longer periods of time, with more money at a faster pace, thereby increasing owner profits.
The amount of interactivity and data presentation/collection possible with current processor based gaming machines has led to a desire to connect gaming machines in a gaming network. In addition to the gaming machines themselves, a number of devices associated with a gaming machine or with a group of gaming machines may be part of the network. It has become important for the devices within a gaming machine or cabinet to be aware of each other and to be able to communicate to a control server. Not only is the presence or absence of a network device important, but also the physical location of the device and the ability to associate devices within a particular gaming machine has become a necessary component of a gaming network.
Currently, casino operators use manual methods to alter content or to reconfigure EGMs and/or other secondary networked devices. For example, a casino employee would need to physically swap out an EPROM to change game content or the employee would need to access an attendant menu on the EGM to alter game configurations. Given the large number of machines and networked devices, this process is a time-consuming and costly process not only in terms of operating and/or maintenance costs, but also in terms of lost profits due to extended downtime for the EGMs. Similarly, existing approaches for software updates or downloads for EGMs are labor-intensive and costly. For example, a technician typically needs to travel to the gaming machine in order to replace existing software package media (e.g., EPROMs, CD-ROM's, Compact Flash, etc.) with new software package media. Furthermore, the software package update process may require that the EGM be disabled hours in advance to prevent any players from using the EGM when the technician is ready to perform software package changes. Alternatively, EGMs may need to be disabled prior to software package updates, but the technician must periodically check to ensure that the EGM(s) are not being used by a player. Additionally, technicians may need to be supervised during the process of software package installation as the technician has access to critical areas of the EGM required for configuration or of those areas of containing cash.
The process of transferring packages to an EGM over a network may require a significant amount of network bandwidth during the transfer period. Typical transfer mechanisms provide point-to-point transfer where a software distribution point (SDP) will not transfer to a single EGM until the transfer is complete, and then the SDP may transfer to another EGM. When hundreds or thousands of EGM's require packages to be transferred there may be an unacceptable extended period of high bandwidth usage, since the transfers must occur sequentially.
Additionally, installing packages on an EGM can require verification that dependent software packages and hardware components are available within the EGM. This is typically a manual process that is prone to human interpretation and human error.
Accordingly, there remains a need to provide a system for updating and configuring EGMS and other networked components.